Alma 62:36 Textual Variants

Robert Baer (personal communication, 20 July 1989) wonders here if the phrase “with a cord” hasn’t been misplaced. It seems more reasonable that Teancum would have used a cord to “let himself down over the walls of the city”. As support for this interpretation, we note that earlier on in this same chapter Moroni had his men use cords and ladders to descend the walls of the city Nephihah:

• Alma 62:21
  • and now Moroni returned to his army and caused that they should prepare in haste strong cords and ladders to be let down from the top of the wall into the inner part of the wall
• Alma 62:23
  • and it came to pass that they were all let down into the city by night by the means of their strong cords and their ladders

The original manuscript is not extant for the first part of Alma 62:36, but theoretically it could have read quite naturally in one of the following ways:

• and with a cord did let himself down over the walls of the city
• and did let himself down with a cord over the walls of the city
• and did let himself down over the walls of the city with a cord

Then somehow in the early transmission of the text the phrase “with a cord” was shifted to the following clause, giving “and he went forth with a cord from place to place”. David Calabro points out (personal communication) a fourth possible emendation, namely, “with a cord” originally occurred even earlier in the verse, as in the following possibility:

• Teancum in his anger did go forth with a cord into the camp of the Lamanites

Calabro points out that this fourth suggestion has “with a cord” shift from after did go forth in one manuscript line to after went forth in the next manuscript line. Another possible scenario is that “with a cord” could have been shifted when Joseph Smith dictated the text to Oliver Cowdery, the presumed scribe in 𝓞 for this passage (extant portions later on in this verse are in Oliver’s hand).

One problem with all of these proposals is that we find very little if any evidence for phrase shifting of this nature in the manuscripts. In general, phrase shifting occurred within the same clause, but not between separate clauses. And if a phrase in one manuscript line accidentally influenced the text in an adjacent manuscript line, that phrase was duplicated rather than transferred.

There is strong reason to believe that the earliest (and current) placement of the phrase “with a cord” is correct. Joel Skousen has suggested (personal communication) the following explanation: since Ammoron was encamped within the main walls of the city, Teancum may have been using his cord (with an attached grappling hook) to scale smaller walls and houses within the city. The current text in Alma 62:36 implies that Teancum was using the cord to help him find Ammoron (“and he went forth with a cord from place to place insomuch that he did find the king”). Unlike Teancum’s assassination of Amalickiah (Ammoron’s brother), there is no mention here of Ammoron sleeping in a tent. Amalickiah was slain in his own tent; his armies were encamped in tents “in the borders on the beach by the seashore” and not within any city (Alma 51:32–52:1). On the other hand, Ammoron’s camp was within city walls, and in fact Ammoron might very well have been sleeping inside a house in the city. If guards were stationed at the gate or door of the house, the use of a cord would have been very helpful in Teancum’s search for Ammoron and gaining access to him. The critical text will therefore accept the placement of “with a cord” in the clause “and he went forth with a cord from place to place insomuch that he did find the king”. Teancum could have well used the same cord to descend the walls of the city— but if he did, the text merely assumes it.